Kazuo Kobayashi, better known as Royal Kobayashi, was a Japanese boxer who competed at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in the featherweight division, and won the WBC junior featherweight titles in 1976.
10 Facts About Royal Kobayashi
1.
2.
Royal Kobayashi won the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships in the featherweight division in 1971 and 1972.
3.
Royal Kobayashi represented Japan at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
4.
Since Royal Kobayashi was an amateur boxer, he was said to be suitable for professional for his hard punches.
5.
In 1973, Royal Kobayashi ran into Yoshinori Takahashi who is the president of Kokusai Boxing Sports Gym established in Tokyo in 1971 at a sports massage clinic, and was encouraged to turn professional.
6.
On October 9,1976, Royal Kobayashi moved down a weight class and dethroned Rigoberto Riasco as the WBC and lineal junior featherweight champion while being watched by 9,000 spectators at the Kuramae Kokugikan.
7.
Royal Kobayashi floored Riasco once with his left hook in the seventh round, and twice with his right hooks in the eighth round.
8.
In January 1978, Royal Kobayashi challenged Wilfredo Gomez to regain the WBC junior featherweight title in front of 10,000 spectators at the Kitakyushu Municipal Gymnasium in Fukuoka, but was knocked out in the third round.
9.
Royal Kobayashi went back to the featherweight division, and captured the OPBF title in April 1978.
10.
Royal Kobayashi defended the OPBF title seven times in total, for about two and a half years.